The 4th Summer Bridget Style
by beezkneez
Summary: Bridget and the girls have finished the first year of college. Home for the summer, ghosts from the past. Spoilers. r
1. Default Chapter

The 4th Summer, Bridget Style

Chapter 1: Following your heart

Bridget never made a plan that couldn't be changed. It had been said of her so many times. So this summer, the fourth summer with the pants. Bridget's plans were going to change. The initial plan was for Bridget and her three best, childhood friends to spend the entire summer together on a low budget, college students didn't have a lot of money after all. School was over April 25th for her, but she was staying in res. another three days so she and Lena could drive back together.

Bridget and Lena had stayed exceptionally close over the past eight months. They tried to meet for dinner once a month and talked constantly. Lena Kaligaris, probably the quietest and most reserved member of their group had blossomed in her time away from home.

Lena Kaligaris, Bridget Vreeland and their two best friends Tibby (Tabitha) Rollins and Carmen Lowell had been friends since before birth and until this year, Bridget had thought that they needed each other for everything, but she had realized this year, that as important as her three friends were, there were other people that could influence her life just as deeply. For example, her roommate Aisha. Aisha and Bridget had thought, at the beginning that they were very badly matched. Aisha was a ballerina. She had applied to Julliard, but Brown had offered her a full scholarship, so obviously she'd accepted. She was a sweet, popular history major with exceptionally high grades. Unlike her three "best" friends, who just wanted to let Bridget be herself, Aisha taught her that sometimes following her dreams was the wrong thing to do and spontaneity isn't the best course of action.

Bridget had always followed her heart, and her heart had gotten her into tons of trouble. It was her heart that had made her pursue Eric. It was her heart, shattered by Eric, that had forced her to quit soccer. She had followed her heart to Alabama, where she met Billy, and started to play soccer again. She'd also met Greta there, and learned all the terrible truths about Marly. She never called Marly her mother anymore. She really never had been. A mother was supposed to be there. Marly never was. Alabama was a place of new beginnings. She had lived a year, depressed. No longer the outgoing "Bee" that everyone had grown to love, so when a chance came up she dug the little bit of the old "Bee" that was left and changed her plans. She took off for Alabama, following her heart for the first time in months. In Alabama her heart ran her.

So now Bridget knew that following her heart had done a lot of good, but it had also done a lot of harm. She realized that her heart had gotten her into way more awkward situations than she'd ever wanted. She was growing up. She needed to be sensible.


	2. Gifts and a letter

So when Bridget met Aisha, she thought she'd gotten stuck with someone her exact opposite, a girl nothing ever happened to.

Bridget remembered the first time she met Aisha. Bridget had already chosen her bed and started to unpack. Aisha came through the door, designer clothes, colourful luggage and great hair. For once in her life Bridget felt small, and at nearly five foot ten, Bridget wasn't used to that. Aisha was tiny, barely more than five foot two, and she looked every inch the ballerina.

"Hey." Bridget had said, "Ritz snack?" She held out a box of Ritz and cheese crackers. Aisha's eyes widened.

"You actually eat those things?" She asked in awe.

Bridget scrunched her eyebrows and looked at the box. "Yup"

"Oh… Do you know how many calories are in those?" Bridget stared. She heard Carmen's mom's voice in her head telling Tibby, 'You are what you eat.' Bridget had an image of a blonde Ritz cracker tearing down the soccer field.

"No." She popped another into her mouth. "I try not to think about it."

"I'm Aisha."

"Bridget."

"Hi, so… this bed is mine I guess?"

"Yeah, hope that's OK." Bridget had taken the bed closest to the window.

"Perfect, I hate unfiltered air. It's like a phobia."

Bridget winced inwardly. This was going to be a fun year…Not.

But it had been a fun year. The first time Bridget had met Aisha's boyfriend Gary, had been interesting. Gary was a dancer at Juliard and had made many snide remarks about his program versus her's.

Bridget hadn't seen Eric at all except at Christmastime. He had managed to spent the week after Christmas with her. He had promised that they'd spend lots of time together this summer.

April 25 had finally arrived and she was packing the last of her stuff. Lena would pick her up three days later. She reached for the chain around her neck. It was cool against her skin, the silver charm sitting perfectly centred on her chest. The pants called to her. They had sat in Carmen's closet at her house. She supposed it was Ryan's room now, Ryan's closet. Bridget was glad that Christina understood about the pants. She just hoped she'd told David. David wanted to help out A LOT. It drove Carmen crazy. Bridget hoped he didn't help with the laundry.

Aisha was flipping blank videos into the VCR, checking which were hers and which were Bridget's. Neither of them labelled things. Bridget heard a bar of familiar music and turned around.

"Leave it on." She said, sinking to the floor.

"But…."

"Please."

"Bridget, what is this?" Aisha asked.

"It's a tape. My friend made it for all of us when we were going to school." The two watched as segments of Bridget's life passed before them. And when it ended, Bridget sat motionless. And then music started. It was Beethoven's fifth. Aisha had danced to it. Bridget watched in awe as Tibby's documentary on Bailey began. Bridget froze. She had never met Bailey, and Tibby had never let her see the documentary. So why was it on Bridget's tape? She watched the scenes, Bailey's pain obvious through the smile. Bridget knew that pain, not that she'd ever had cancer, but she knew it. The hidden perils of life. Bailey struck her as being much like herself, afraid to let life take you for the ride, wanting complete control, even when it wasn't possible, afraid of letting life take you along for the ride, but unsure how to stop it. Afraid of time, having too much, or not enough. Tears streamed down Bridget's face and she didn't try to stop them.

At the end, in Tibby's favourite font it read: _Time, don't waste it, Embrace it._

"Who was that?" Aisha asked

Bridget looked up. "Bailey. She had leukaemia, she was twelve. She died." Bridget realised how little she knew about Bailey. "You can take it out now."

Aisha smiled and hugged Bridget around the shoulders. She handed her the tape and continued to flip through the others.

Aisha was already packed. Bridget was finishing rolling up the drawing Lena had made of the pants, spelling WE. It was Tibby's favourite gift, even though they didn't play favourites. Bridget had loved it too, she still did. She just didn't feel the WE connection as strongly.

Carmen, Tibby and Lena seemed to hold them together. They always had. Bridget seemed only to break things.

"Ooh Bridget, did you see this?" Aisha waved an envelope in Bridget's face.

"No, what is it? Where's it from?"

"Baja." Aisha said calmly. She knew what had happened in Baja. She didn't however know how it had affected Bridget, how it still did. Bridget was with Eric now. What did three years ago matter?

Bridget's face went white, so white even her hair went lighter than its usual peeled banana colour. "Can I see it?"

"Uh, sure."

Bridget opened it and read it. It invited her to coach at the soccer camp in Baja. Instinctively she filled out the info, putting N/A for mother's information, and set it by the bed. She had to talk to Eric.


End file.
